Abstract
The advent of e-retailing has brought about colossal transformation in the realm of traditional retailing services. As a part of virtual services, the human component involved in this sector is hidden right from placing of an order till its delivery. These workers, once deemed as a segment of invisible workforce in academic debate, have lately caught attention with their growing resentment at workplace (Cherry, 2016). The purpose of this article is to understand the nature of work in delivery segment of e-retailing’s value chain that is emerging as a major blue collar job in several metro cities of India. This would help contextualize whether these kinds of jobs, being developed through advent of information technology in service economy, resembles post-industrial theory or supports critics of such theory. This has been carried out through analysis of work organization and workplace relationships in delivery services, against a backdrop of Braverman’s (1998) de-skilling thesis and Burawoy’s (1979) theory on ‘relations in production’.
The notion of classical bourgeois economics towards unproductive labour changed with the destruction of such mass of unproductive labour outside the corporation and its recreation on a different foundation within it (Braverman, 1998, p. 287). In contemporary economy, all labour processes encompassing those that produce, realize or divert the surplus are adjudged equally useful (Braverman, 1998, p. 288). This article is set against a backdrop of re-defining work and labour process in contemporary service economy. The emerging service economy of India is witnessing high explosion of secondary jobs rather than knowledge intensive jobs as assumed by post-industrialists of informational economy. As it is the low-productive and low-income segments that has been experiencing growth in terms of employment (Nayak & Pattanaik, 2011). Thus, service economy is being increasingly termed as ‘jobless growth’ wherein, disparity of wages and quality of work has become a burning issue of the sector.
Creation of new forms of web-based work environment encompass new forms of labour but old forms of exploitation, being introduced through dicey work arrangements with the help of information technology (Scholz & Ross, 2013 as cited in Huws, 2014). Even in the Indian context, revolution of information technology shifted focus, from traditional to contemporary services, where one such sector to have received a big push is that of, e-retailing. Anand, Bisen and Singh (2013) define e-retailing as, ‘a part of e-commerce which entails the sale of product merchandise and does not include sale of services’. Being an intensive IT-based service work, an empirical estimate by Anand et al. (2013, p. 9) for the year 2012, claims that, around 74.4 per cent of the sector’s workforce is concentrated at the lower segments such as in warehousing and logistics. Thus, it implies a high dominance of blue collar jobs that is further expected to increase with creation of 0.8 million jobs by 2021 (Anand et al., 2013). This industry can be claimed to embark upon the delivery segment that has been witnessing tremendous proliferation with e-retail majors establishing in-house logistic departments or, tying up with third-party logistics across Tier II and Tier III towns for ensuring smooth last-mile delivery (Sardana, 2014). Hence, employment of such huge number of feet on the ground signifies a new trend of work on wheels in contemporary economy that stands to be the backbone of the entire e-retailing industry. These delivery boys serve as the only dynamic and valuable interface for the company through operating as a point of contact with the market. So, they have a duo responsibility of representing the brand while working for the company that in turn creates additional responsibilities for the workers. The potential of e-tailing to create new employment entails two dimensions—the creation of absolute volume of employment and enhancement of e-tailing as a target for attracting quality talent (Anand et al., 2013). This article focuses on the second dimension of e-tailing’s employment potential, to understand the nature of work and labour process practiced in the lower-end work constellations of these online retail giants. Hence, this article will intend to analyse the organization and nature of work in global digital economy or, specifically of a visible workforce, that is, the delivery workforce of an invisible work environment.
The structure of the article is as follows. First section describes the research methodology used for the study followed by a socio-economic profile of the respondents. Second section evaluates the nature of work and its associated prospects, highlighting inherent control mechanism. The role of workplace-workspace relations has been covered in third section. The fourth section concludes the study by presenting a theoretical insight to the findings.
Research Methodology
The study has been conducted in Guwahati, Assam. Being a service-driven economy with a storehouse of prospective boys of sound age and qualification, Guwahati serves as a viable destination for rise of in-house as well as third-party logistic departments. Apart from localities, the companies can bank on workers from nearby as well as distant areas owing to strong rural-urban linkage with other parts of the state. Being an exploratory study, qualitative methodology has been used to examine the social world through its participants (Bryman, 2012, p. 380). Under the regime of qualitative research, phenomenology approach has been used, as it helps in viewing a phenomenon through the lived experiences of its respondent (Langdridge, 2004, p. 274). The underlying motive behind such an approach has been to gain a deeper insight into the experiences of the respondents. Moreover, concerning the sensitivity of this new emerging sector, constraints were faced in terms of approaching the respondents. Hence, a sample of 14 delivery boys from logistics arms operating as, in-house as well as, third-party logistic departments to other e-retailing companies has been drawn using convenience and snowball sampling methods.
Data have been collected using unstructured in-depth interview, being guided through the experiences of the respondents. The interview has been audio-recorded with prior permission of the respondents, so as to gain an in-depth understanding of their experiences during the stages of translation and transcription. For analysing the data, thematic approach has been used, whereby from the transcribed data, several sub-themes were derived and these were, at a later stage, clubbed under a respective parent theme. With respect to ethics in social research, the researcher has followed strict principles of informed consent and confidentiality concerning the identity of the respondents as well as their company. As the research has been guided by the respondent’s narration of their own experiences in an institutional setting, in certain cases the researcher had to restrict its questions, respecting their privacy. Since, the study was a one-way evaluation of the delivery boys’ perception towards their work, the researcher did not indulge in covering aspects of financial nature or terms of service that might require managerial clarification as well. Moreover, majority of the respondents were not comfortable when asked about internal management issues.
Profile of Respondents and Entry to Occupation
A short profile of the respondents has been included in a tabular format (Table 1). This includes a socio-economic background of the respondents, including their previous work experiences and their mode of entry to current occupation. The logistic arm of online companies has been attracting candidates from diverse background in terms of education, socio-economic strata and/or previous experience where referrals or word of mouth serves as a major source of recruitment. In context to head hunting or employment exchanges, the local placement agencies have a tie-up with the online retail companies whereby, it not only helps in the recruitment of prospective candidates but also regulates their employment through monitoring their pay and provisions at the company every month. However, usage of employment exchanges is not common and has been seen in only one of the companies. So, unlike other metropolitan cities, the use of social network of recruitment at large-scale implies more reliance on informal means for attracting candidates and filling up the vacancies. Though such practice of recruitment serves to be easy, cost-effective and fast in terms of having access to trustworthy candidates; however, it serves to be a highly casual approach. This informal means for promoting vacancy does not screen the potentials of an individual and might have an impact on perception of occupational prestige, as the concept of delivery is still, as per some, looked down in the society. This might be one of the reasons why it does not serve as an aspiring job (Bagchi, Pillai, & Ray, 2015) among individuals and even in the eyes of the existing workers, as it does not help in professionalizing the work.
Work Organization: An Appraisal of Nature of Work in GIG Economy
Bell (1973) assumed the paradigm shift, from manufacturing to services, a route for transition from low-skilled manual occupations to high-skilled knowledge intensive occupations (as cited in Grint & Nixon, 2015, p. 297). However, despite such an eloquent account, Braverman (1998) considered such shift to lead towards taking over direct control of all process of production and labour by the capitalists under the capitalists system. Everything in the end becomes alien to the workers as everything goes outside his/her interest claim and control and it leaves the worker with wage as the sole equity in the job (ibid., p. 317). This has been claimed to be possible through reduction in labour time required for the production process and consecutive cheapening of labour power where the latter is achieved through breaking down complex production process into simple tasks (ibid., p. 318). As stated ‘This leads to the conversion of the greatest possible mass of labour into work of the most elementary form, labour from which all conceptual elements have been removed and along with them most of the skill, knowledge, and understanding of production processes’ (ibid., p. 319). Thus, Braverman (1998) highlighted an immense shift of labour from traditional manufacturing, construction, transportation and mining to services on account of workings of the capitalist division of labour that create second jobs in the economy (ibid., pp. 322–323).
Profile of Respondents
Family members exclude the respondent and earning source is inclusive of respondents’ earning status. These boys are engaged in in-house logistic departments of online companies, as well as, other third party logistics catering exclusively for online retailers in Guwahati; however, names of the companies have not been disclosed.
Delivery Service as Work
The work of a delivery boy is confined to taking the parcels from his respective hub and delivering it at the doorstep of the customers; however, in between there are several tasks that add up significantly to the work organization of these workers. On one hand, these workers in a GIG economy is considered to act as independent contractors who are endowed flexibility in terms of their work (Coleman, 2016) but if one observes their work organization, it could faintly camouflage the inherent control mechanism imbibed in their work. The mere escape from engaging and committing in a formal employment relationship through tagging of such work under ‘independent businesses’ or ‘independent contractors’ seems to be an easy route for the emerging companies. However, it is likely to jeopardize the future of employment relations in emerging labour market. The entry to the occupation comes attached with equipment investment as a qualification by the worker where the candidate is expected to possess its own vehicle and in other cases, the company has arrangements to provide credit for the same. However, as literature points, servicing of vehicles as a responsibility of management towards ensuring occupational safety of these workers, such mechanism does not seem to be in place. Hence, the burden of transportation is swiftly passed on to the workers under the tags of ‘independent business’ or ‘independent contract’.
As per the work of a delivery boy, he is basically allotted a particular area, whereby, after making entries in its name, it has to trace and contact the customers. In this process, he essentially assumes the ownership of the product until it is delivered or, handed over to the final customer, in other words, if he displaces or loses the parcel, he will be liable to pay the company. Added to this, some delivery boys also have to assume the responsibility of a sorter who works under a fixed working schedule of the company, involving work like, unloading shipments from vehicles, unpacking the big packets into smaller ones and then loading the rejected or, cancelled items back on vehicles, for sending back to the main centre. Recent technological up-gradation in the name of dignifying work, like introduction of inbuilt delivery tracking software in the workers’ phone has in practice enhanced management’s control over the workers.
The work of a delivery boy resembles one of Bhagwati’s (1984 as cited in Banga, 2005) classifications of service work, that is, mobile provider and immobile user, whereby the work of the former resembles a work of movement, as he has to move to the customer’s place for providing the service. This characteristic has two inherited aspects that can be segregated in terms of workplace, signifying their respective departments/offices, where their tasks involves mere taking over of parcels and the other aspect involves, workspace. In context to workspace, unlike other blue collar jobs they do not work within the premises of the company that in turn exposes them to multiple external constraints beyond their control. These constraints arising in terms of difficulty in identifying new places, riding through congested traffic, building repo with different customers, going through security check at apartments, weather issues and so on, has an impact over their time-bound work. Hence, spatial diversity being a defining feature of this work creates more stakeholders, such as security guards, traffic constables, fellow motorists and so on, in the work of these delivery boys. Moreover, they prefer to stick to a particular area for delivery within a flexible working environment as constant change of routes creates unexpected troubles for the boys. In one of the cases, a delivery boy, owing to carelessness of his fellow worker, ended up being dragged to the police station. In such cases, the management in order to retain brand loyalty among customers, does not proactively come to its workers’ rescue and prefers to stay behind the scene. The delivery boys are, hence, caught in a dilemma where they can neither speak for the customer nor the company. However in all this, they are not empowered to decide their own routes instead, they are being directed at every step of a so-called ‘own business’.
Skills It Seeks and Breeds: Scope for Development of Individual Potential at Workplace
The skills sought for this work encompasses mere familiarity with areas and their ability to work on field without much emphasis being placed on their educational qualification. This is so as a boy of 10th standard is seen to be working alongside a degree holder. The skills with which a delivery boy joins the company are essential for performance of tasks at work but being a part of service sector, they are groomed in social, technical and aesthetic aspects (Thompsen, Warhurst, & Callaghan, 2001 as cited in Dahl, 2013) as well. Their training, which can be segregated as on-the-job and off-the-job training, raise question on its significance for overall development of an individual.
On-the Job Training
On-the-job training implies learning by doing, that is, making the delivery boy go to random places for delivering products either, on their own or, with some other delivery boy during the initial months of his joining. As Russo (2015) states learning arise from repetition of skills required to perform a given set of tasks resulting in faster and more precise task execution. Similarly, the period of on-the-job training ranges from 1 to 3 months whereby, the familiarity of the boys with their areas is enhanced and in this their fellow workers help to inculcate certain customer centric skills. Moreover, technical skills, in terms of basic tasks and duties associated with the work, are imbibed during orientation. Constant up-gradation at work on technical front necessitates short-term training during the course of employment, so as to modify the workers’ skill to handle sophisticated equipment like that of tracking software and all. Added to this, their responsibility at work, in terms of, managing their parcels and following traffic rules are also taught. This kind of training is solely meant for grooming an individual with respect to its work.
Off-the-job Training
Off-the-job training is received during orientation and in the course of employment to inculcate service-driven skills. The training is mostly imparted by the manager or, the team leader although at times, certain trainers from the head-office are sent for the purpose. In certain cases, existing workers with 3 to 4 years of experience are even asked to share their experiences to create a social learning environment for the new comers. Though such training appears to contribute towards the development of these boys at personal front; however, the motive lies in inculcation of service ethos in an individual that results in scrapping off their autonomy and creativity at work.
Social Skills
In advanced societies as put forward by C. Wright Mills (1951), there has been a shift from ‘skills with things’ to ‘skills with persons’ (as cited in Haralambos & Heald, 2014, pp. 280–281). Being the only element in e-retailing industry to interact face-to-face with the customers, the focus is on developing a customer-centric attitude. Right from greeting a customer to handing over the parcel, the delivery boy is groomed through several stages whereby, even a parcel of ₹199 demands the worker to accept the exact amount and return a rupee back to the customer anyhow. However, in some cases, issues of self-estrangement were evident as the delivery boy claims to have adopted a completely different outlook towards people in general, owing to the imbibed ethos of its company. So, this sector is a personality market, where delivery boys are employed not because of their educational qualification and experience but because of their ability to get along with people.
Emotional and Aesthetic Skills
Hochschild’s (1983) proposition on emotional labour is applicable in context to delivery boys as even they are trained to manage their emotions at work, keeping at bay professional and personal stress. As the work involves a lot of communication with customers having different outlook, the labour of surface acting is seen to be high for providing context-specific emotional display. As Dinesh states ‘here in our company customers are given more attention, customers can treat you badly but when customers scold you, you have to keep your head low and listen…you cannot say anything badly to the customer’. As Nickson et al. (2005 [cited in Grint & Nixon, 2015]) and McDowell (2009 [cited in Grint & Nixon, 2015]) talk about growing importance of ways workers present themselves thereby, stressing on the necessity of looking good and sounding right (Grint & Nixon, 2015, p. 287) similarly, being the only visible segment of the value chain, the delivery boys are groomed in aesthetic appeal to represent the brand of the company. Since, a lot of emphasis is placed on appearance the boys are even trained to wear their uniforms apart from mere provision of the same.
Control Over Effort and Performance through Financial and Non-financial Rewards
As per Milkovich and Newman (2004), amidst all types of reward, monetary pay has been considered to be one of the most important and significant factor in retaining workers (as cited in Baruah & Das, 2013, p. 10). Some delivery boys claim the financial aspect to be one of their sole reasons for staying at work where they elaborately narrate about the variety of benefits being offered at their work. The financial benefits earned for their service encompasses the net salary and additional incentives received over their performance. The range of basic salary as well as the system of payment varies across companies. Some receive a gross salary of around ₹7,000 to ₹18,000 whereas some are paid on piece rate system, that is, ₹18 on every product they deliver. The annual increment ranges from 10 to 15 per cent of gross salary subject to performance of the delivery boy in the year. In other cases, the increment is based on the profit or loss of the company, where the system of calculation of such increment is generally not disclosed. For the days worked, the delivery boys receive an additional financial aid, after every 7 or 15 days of work, to cover their petrol and lunch expenses. Added to this, performance incentives are appraised on the basis of their delivery rate where some provide a fixed incentive on every parcel, say, ₹5 but if the delivery exceeds 800, then the incentive increases by ₹4 implying a total of ₹9 is received on the excess deliveries. Others provide incentive only after exceeding a particular target, ₹6 on every parcel above a monthly target of 520 parcels.
As Hensen et al. (2002) states the importance of recognizing one’s effort over their orientation towards work (as cited in Silverman, 2004, p. 2), the intrinsic attachment, in terms of providing non-financial rewards, is seen to be at an infant stage among the delivery boys. It includes awarding retail voucher of a specific amount to employee of the month, public appreciation among peers and seniors for coming up with new ideas at work and rewarding them for high performance with prizes tagged as ‘Rockstar Award’. Fringe benefits cover provision of uniforms and refreshments, where the latter, in the form of breakfast or lunch, is provided during excess workload.
The salary and incentive being proportional to their rate of delivery, the work thrives on heavy calculative skills whereby, chasing targets become their sole motto at work. A delivery boy has to deliver around 35 to 70 parcels in a day that increases two to three times more, during occasions or on mega sale. The drive for delivering more, in case of piece rate system, has drawn workers to deliver up to 1,600 parcels in a month implying, a whopping salary of ₹32,000. The level of clearance depends on three factors, the first being their experience at work where performance is seen to be directly proportional to experience of the worker, as Gutku narrates, ‘my target is to deliver 15 shipments in one hour, anyhow’. The other two factors depend upon the responsiveness of the customer that is customers’ willingness to accept the parcels on due date, and on the heaviness of the parcel, where ‘heavy’ denotes both price and weight. This has two aspects, first if the parcels are small they can carry more in number and alternatively, the chances of acceptance by the customer also increase. Moreover, the separation of workplace and workspace exposes these workers to external factors like traffic hazels that reduce the efficiency of delivery and hence, affects the target set by the boys.
Considering the above narrations, the relationship between financial incentive and performance can be conceptualized through Expectancy Theory of Vroom (1964 as cited in Bonner & Sprinkle, 2002). This theory signifies how incentivizing workers raises their expectation to earn more, resulting in direction of all their efforts towards improved performance, that is, achieving more deliveries. This intensity is more, if salary is based on the piece-rate system as mentioned. Considering the diagram of Bonner and Sprinkle (2002), showing relationship between incentive, effort and performance, a slight modification has been done for using it in context to delivery boys. This includes a web of control, whereby, the management through incentivizing their work inherits a complete control over the boys’ effort and performance (Figure 1). As stated above, every form of monetary or non-monetary reward is designed to attract the workers in delivering more. The segregation of financial benefits over different heads somehow makes the workers strive for higher performance. Hence, the management stands to have a complete hold over their workers’ effort and performance.
Concept of Work Time and Its Impact on Leisure Activities
Alienation from leisure signifies how non-work time is simply used by the worker for recovering, recuperating and reproducing itself (Marx, 1844 as cited in Haralambos & Heald, 2014, p. 281). During the initial years of their service or on occasions and sale, these boys go through similar kind of experience. As Mrinal states,
[I]f we have 30 parcels to deliver, then on occasions it becomes 60 to 70 parcels per day […] I have delivered around 110 in a day (smiles) […] during Puja […] it becomes extremely late, maximum till 12 am we have worked and we reach home at 1:30 am.
Usually they have a fixed time to report at their office in the morning, however, the time used for delivering parcels depends on their capability and customers’ availability. In case of additional work like sorting, the boys have fixed office hours. It has been made compulsory to serve 9 hours in the office for conducting delivery and sorting activities. They are tracked through usage of punching cards.
They are provided leave on weekly, casual, occasional and sickness basis. Weekly leave is compulsory, whereas for occasional leave the delivery boys are given an option to work with double payment for the day. Their instrumentalist orientation leads to encroachment of work in their leisure activities, where work assumes a central component not because of deep satisfaction but because of the prospect of earning more. Increasing workload combined with irregular working hours and working days makes it of utmost necessity to understand how they manage their work and personal life. This is necessary owing to increasing impetus of decent work concept, where striking a balance between work and personal life serves as an important indicator of healthy work. The theory on retreat from work to leisure of Joffre Dumazedier (1967 [cited in Haralambos & Heald, 2014]), which states that in today’s era people look at the leisure facilities before choosing the job (Haralambos & Heald, 2014, p. 313), does not fit into this context because the delivery boys are somehow getting accustomed to such irregular working hours and are even serving on occasions where, they are entitled to leave. They are no doubt lured through financial incentives where they are willing to sacrifice their leisure activities for the prospect of earning more.
Perception Towards Long-term Employability
The employment relations become fragmented and individualized in contemporary economy, signified as ‘political economy of insecurity’, where workers’ shift their focus from long-term organizational careers towards the development and maintenance of individual employability (Beck, 2000 as cited in Grint & Nixon, 2015, p. 299). The delivery boys are also sceptical regarding their long-term employability in this sector. As gathered, many aspire to use it as a temporary platform for earning their livelihood till a particular age and then resort to some other work, mostly in terms of starting one’s own business or, secure a permanent government job. The reasons span across personal aspiration, physical fitness, negative inclination towards acquiring the position of a team leader to incommensurability of earnings and cost of running a family. Even with prospect for upward mobility, in the form of becoming team leaders, these delivery boys possess a low level of inclination towards it. The work of a team leader encompasses sorting, assigning tasks and tracking the work of delivery boys. However, their ability to earn more through delivering at their own will, rather than working under the barbwires of the company for longer and fixed working hours, along with threat of destabilizing existing peer relationship, makes them negatively inclined towards such higher position.
Braverman’s (1998) themes on critiques of post-industrial theory, that is, de-skilling and control (Kitay, 1997) seem to be prominent in case of this delivery segment of e-retailing. Technology has broken down the entire process of retailing to its lowest minimum skill that in turn has led to employment of humans in the form of drones thereby, possessing features of Braverman’s (1998) secondary jobs in the economy. As Bowles and Gintis (1976) highlight the presence of certain monotonous and fragmented work with little opportunity to express worker’s creativity (as cited in Haralambos & Heald, 2014, p. 279), similarly, the work of delivery, in true essence cannot be termed as a fundamental for developing workers’ potential. Appraisal of the skills it seeks and breeds like, a mere consideration of ability to ride bikes or, familiarity with areas, signify a possibility that the tacit knowledge of the workers may go unrewarded. Moreover, these delivery boys having instrumentalist orientation dwells on prioritizing extrinsic values, in terms of good pay and perks, over intrinsic ones. Operationalizing on Marx’s theory on alienation, Blauner (1964) drew four related facets of alienation, that is, powerlessness, meaninglessness, isolation and self-estrangement (as cited in Grint & Nixon, 2015, p. 246). A glimpse of all these facets of alienation is visible in case of the delivery boys. The monotonous and fragmented nature of work, combined with limited focus on work centric skills, leaves no scope for potential development of the worker and hence creates a sense of meaningless work being carried out. Moreover, control at work makes these workers operate like drones with imbibed corporate guidelines, leading to their alienation from self and other fellow workers that in turn, creates a feeling of disempowerment and self-estrangement at work.
Politicization of Workplace–Workspace Relationships in Delivery Services
Relationships at workplace assumes a different role in Burawoy’s (1979) ‘capitalist labour process theory’ that stresses on how workers consent to this very system that constraints them (Hazelsapien, 2013). The ‘making out’ game by management breeds individuality among the workers where the urge of earning more incentives creates a sense of individualism over the collective capacity of workers, implying a negative correlation to social supportive behaviour (ibid.). This relational aspect basically termed as, ‘relations in production’ signifying the relations a worker enter into with its co-workers and the management, shape and form the practical aspect of labour process (Burawoy, 1979, p. 15). Hence, an attempt has been made to understand these roles in context to the delivery workers. A key feature of contemporary work, as Senett (1998 [cited in Grint & Nixon, 2015]) propounds, is development of a succession of short-term working relationships by the workers with a variety of other actors. Such relationships and its working environment lack authenticity, as ‘flexible capitalism’ imposes a ‘demeaning superficiality’ on their relationships to work and fellow workers. It leads to anomic individualism that debars development of identity and character at work (as cited in Grint & Nixon, 2015, pp. 306–307). Rapid expansion of delivery services from mere four to five boys to over 200 highlight a growing impetus of workplace relationships that cuts across, customary workplace relationships in other blue collar jobs. The organizational structure of a logistic department follows a hierarchical structure, where the regional manager/hub in-charge occupies the top-most position. Beneath him are the team leaders that work like supervisors to the delivery boys. These team leaders have the responsibility of sorting and overseeing the work of delivery boys working under him. There are inbuilt lines of authority and responsibility for the delivery boys as well as the team leaders. A delivery boy is seen to be maintaining relationship with several actors in the structure like the seniors comprising of hub in-charge and the team leaders, the peers signifying fellow delivery boys at work and the customers, as displayed in Figure 2.
Relationship with Seniors
Relationship with seniors is in respect, to its immediate senior, that is, the team leader and the hub in-charge/regional manager. Conceptualization of the relationship of delivery boys with their seniors resembles a, learning by doing, environment. Their work takes place under a two-way process of learning, where after trained by their seniors, the delivery boys, being the only element to have face-to-face contact with the customers, keep the seniors updated with their field experiences. This instils a sense of inclusiveness among the delivery personnel where in few cases, the delivery boys could freely approach their managers to share customer or work-related issues. This requires a two-way flow of communication, that is, informing or sharing the issue with management and receiving simultaneous flow of support and advices from top rung. Interest and trusts bestowed by the management create a reciprocal relationship by virtue of which, experienced employees develop a bond with the company, even if the work is, alienating and unrewarding. Poaching by rival companies through higher salaries or position, as marked in literature, poses a major threat to retention of experienced delivery boys. But such temptation is neutralized with the trust conferred upon the boys by their companies. However, it is not clear whether this trust possess any vested interest for the parties as the following narration does not signify an assured stay by the respondent.
Gutku: …they even tried to approach me and make me explain that people like me are highly required in such new companies…but I said no…if I leave this job and work there, I might get ₹4,000 to ₹5,000 more, but going is not the only thing na…many things are there, so I won’t go… as long as I can I will stay here…
Amidst such support from seniors, the perceived organizational support for delivery boys, in terms of meeting workers’ socio-economic needs, is still weak. Many a times, the management fails to understand their workload or, issues and evaluation of such hindrances shows instincts of unionism that in turn affects employee engagement at work. As gathered, when confronted with work-related issues, such as leave, workload or timing, the first task involve discussion among the co-workers, followed by intimation to the team leaders, about their unwillingness to take out parcels for delivery on the succeeding day. The hub in-charge comes and negotiates with them, whereby if he understands their problem or accepts their demand, they immediately start their work but in case he does not, the boys call their regional manager for negotiation. It assumes the form of tools down strike or, in their language a parcels in strike. They know their importance in the industry, whereby if they refuse to work, the entire industry will come to a standstill. This instinct of unionism is not uniform across all cases where one of the respondent claims that lack of unity combined with troublesome team leaders serve as a major stumbling block for unionizing. Each and every move is tracked by these leaders at work and is alerted, as and soon the boys discuss about raising their voice. Added to this, in some cases, the manpower hierarchy is strategically structured on local versus outsider politics. The team leaders being non-localities is claimed to lack empathy, whereby most of the time they makes use of their authoritarian strength to suppress the voices. This strategic move by the management helps maintain distance between the parties. This is further aggravated with some delivery boys working against their own segment, through passing of information to the team leaders, about all the moves of their co-workers. The existence of this experienced category of workers and the above category that prefers to be in the good books of the management raises an inquisitiveness to evaluate, if this sector is showing early signs of developing internal labour market in the sector. This kind of relational aspect at workplace, as per Burawoy (1979), helps in reproducing the relations of production and contrite towards sustenance of the existing capitalist system of production.
Peer/Co-worker Relationship
Peer relationship or the lateral communication among workers/peers received due recognition only with the Hawthorne studies that portrayed the impact of informal communications over employee performance (Bellanca, 2008, p. 58). Kram and Isabella’s (1985) functional classification of peer relationship has been used to understand co-worker relationship in this segment. This has been covered through the functions involved in relationship among delivery boys, the efforts used towards strengthening it and threats imposed through managerial action.
Function of Peer Relationship
Of the broad functions identified by Kram and Isabella (1985), information exchange and social support stand out to be more prominent in case of delivery boys. Information exchange is in context to work and experiences while social support refers to non-verbal and verbal communications that lead to reduction in uncertainty (Bellanca, 2008, p. 64). Resembling, a ‘game between persons’ (Bell, 1973), this work is highly interactive in nature and hence, every day the workers come across new experiences or, issues at their work. They prefer to sit together and talk about their daily chores during low workload or early completion of work. This in turn helps them in learning about their work through experiences of other fellow workers. Within the framework of social support, emotional and instrumental support stands out to be significant for these boys. Emotional support from peers plays a pivotal role during unpleasant encounter with customers or confrontations with its seniors. Material assistance provided through mutual understanding, like that of, adjustment of weekly leaves among the peers, signifies presence of instrumental support among the boys. The delivery boys get four weekly leaves in a month and it is usually based on rotation system, that is, they cannot go on leave all together on a specific day. This is prepared by the company but is adjustable among the boys, where if someone has any problem with his leave, he can get it adjusted with another boy.
Development of Peer Relationship
These delivery boys, by means of their own initiatives, are strengthening their peer relationship through introduction of team work and associations at their workplace. Team work, introduced at the initiative of the delivery boys, serve as an important tool for managing faster and higher delivery rate. This kind of division does not usually require any interference from the management and hence, basically thrives on the mutual understanding between the delivery boys of a particular team. The team is formed on the basis of an area say, for each area there will be one team comprising of three to four delivery boys who will divide the entire area among them. In case, one of the boys remains absent, the other three will take over his parcels and get it delivered. This helps to avoid any backlog for the absentee as well as the company. It works on the principle of divide and deliver. Another striking initiative relates to the creation of a society at workplace to look after their emergency needs. Owing to thin possibility of unionizing, delivery boys of company A, tried to introduce a concept of forming a society whereby, each would contribute ₹20 per month towards the fund of the society. The fund is to be utilized for meeting any emergency need of the delivery boys with respect to self or its family. It has served as a safety net for the workers and has successfully aided boys who have lost their bikes or were in dire need of hi-tech phones for their work.
Factors that Might Affect Peer’s Relations
Working in an uncertain competitive environment always runs the risk of sparking conflict in any relationship and delivery boys are no exception, owing to the monetary aspect involved. Competition is evident where, seeing their fellow workers earning more, the others equally strive for higher delivery attempt. The spirit of competitiveness seems to be fine, as long as the workers do not get into the work of others. There are distinct lines of delivery for all the boys but during less workload in a particular area, its respective delivery boy can take the responsibility of delivering parcels in another line. This sparks conflict, as such act, directly affects the earnings of the other delivery boy in terms of his salary and incentives. The zeal to earn more than the other lures the boy to go against the existing peer relationship and hence, a high possibility of lateral conflict, as evident in Burawoy’s labour process, is prevalent in case of delivery boys as well. This conflict is so well-managed by the management, hidden in work organization, that workers cannot understand its implications.
Relationship with Customers
As Grint and Nixon (2015) highlights, the necessity of servicing the demands of customers in service work calls for demand of flexible workers, similarly, the work of delivery boys is highly driven by whims and fancies of the customers (as cited in Grint & Nixon, 2015, p. 294). Managing one’s work time with that of the customer is a tedious task where unavailability or, non-cooperation by customers disturb the flow of their work, as Pranab states, ‘waiting for one customer we have to sacrifice 10 customers and if that is not understood by the customers, “lag bulile lagiboe (I want it anyhow)” creates problem’. Even with growing acceptability of online shopping, an element of uncertainty lurks among the customers. The brunt of such suspicion is, by and large, borne by the delivery boys.
Gutku: …if the relation with customer is good then in this work there is no other problem…you will not face any problem and do your work smoothly…and if it is bad, if they place one complaint, I might lose my job…
Their account on customer experience raises question on the vulnerability of their position at work. Is the value of a customer more than the livelihood of a worker? The extent to which a company makes moral appeal to its customers through eye-catching slogans, does not justify such actions by putting at stake their own workers’ job security. Though the companies, in case of repeated cancellation of orders blacklist the customers, it is not clear whether they have any policy for protecting the delivery boys from bad behaviour of customers at work. Gabriel (2005) considers service encounter to be a ‘glass palace’, connoting high visibility of workers, where in the name of enhancing customer experience, the management increases its control over workers’ behaviour (as cited in Grint & Nixon, 2015, p. 313). In correspondence to Leidner’s (1996 as cited in Grint & Nixon, 2015, p. 314) ‘three way dynamic of control’, the management of delivery service makes use of extensive customer feedback mechanism to monitor the boys’ behaviour and their delivery attempt. The practice of policies such as Zero-Tolerance-Policy, further jeopardize the workers’ position as certain acts against women and children lead to immediate termination of the workers.
The delivery boys owing to their company regulation have to swallow economic and emotional turmoil every now and then while dealing with unprofessional customers. Being a target-based work, the delivery-boys calculate and allot specific time to each customer, so as to, cover more targets in a shorter time. As the customers are informed about the delivery well in advance, they expect them to be ready with the money so that, all they need to do is, hand over the parcel, take the money and get the signature from the customer. Many a times, this flow is broken, whereby the delivery-boy end-up spending more time waiting for the customer to arrange the amount. This disturbance in synchronization is further fuelled when the customers argues over having changes and asks the delivery boy, if it is his business, to take two to three rupees more from the customer. Non-compliance in terms of following company’s policies or aiding in locating places is a daily affair for these boys. Locating places is a big time problem, especially for the beginners and non-localities where non-cooperation on customer’s front like, furnishing incomplete information or, refusal to explain the address at the time of enquiry places significant pressure on the boys. It is further fuelled by instances where the delivery boys, during summer, are not allowed to use the lifts but are instead asked to take stairs to deliver at fourth or fifth floors. This makes them feel that the hallmark of online shopping, that is, ‘delivery at doorstep’ is misused many a times.
In context to relationship at workplace or, ‘relations in production’, management’s efforts towards development of individualism over collective solidarity among workers help in maintaining potential for lateral conflict in the organization. This kind of approach not only works in favour of company’s financial benefit but also enables greater control over the labour process, as claimed by Burawoy (1979). The internal politics developed through work organization create a collision of interests among a blue collar worker and a service worker as, in spite of their denial of having unions, their actions during confrontation with management, mostly resembles instincts of unionism. This has resulted mostly from realization of their importance in the industry; however, such realization cannot materialize in its true form owing to preference of individualistic motives over collective good. It is further fuelled through managerial practices that breed possibility of lateral conflict and thereby, help them maintain complete control over the labour process. This can be related to the ‘making out’ game of Burawoy (1979, p. 15) where management through incentivizing work, introduce lateral conflict in the organization. This in turn allows management to exert significant control over the workers, as highlighted above. Even with perpetual improvement in service encounter, the delivery boys highlight necessity of perceptual and attitudinal change in customers, so as to professionalize the system. Customer’s attitude of viewing the work through lenses of suspicion makes these boys question their occupational prestige. Basically, the informational economy that was expected to bring about transformation in terms of skills and occupational prestige, creating a vast stratum of dignified workers (Bell, 1973) does not seem to hold good when seen from delivery boys’ experience.
Conclusion
Delivery as work resembles a low-skilled occupation that emerged as a response to organization of work in the retailing sector through advent of information technology. Even though Bell (1973) considered such occupational growth as insignificant compared with the cosmic growth of skill intensive occupations in the economy (as cited in Grint & Nixon, 2015, p. 274), such claim seems to be at stake considering the current rate of expansion of the sector. The glorious post-industrial theories, in context to, emergence of such services in the economy seems to be utopian, as of now, considering the nature of work and skills it breeds. Furthermore, does provision of high-tech gadgets or, usage of terms like, ‘delivery executives’ in place of ‘delivery boys’, dignify the workers or, does it call for reconsideration of the meaning of dignity from worker’s perspective. As Pranab states,
It might help one to conceptualize whether expanding informational economy is heading towards professionalization or rather, proletarianization of the workforce? A significant attribute of this work is its identity, where one would generally raise a question of, why is it only about deliver ‘boys’? The reason for such segmentation, amidst growing participation of women in the economy’s workforce, can contribute in the area of identity and work. Moreover, bearing in mind the nature of work and orientation of the workers, the question on developing a worker centric organizational culture seems to be dubious. So, is it merely about increasing the number at the cost of meaningful work? Furthermore, if such growth is encouraged, is there any scope for identifying potential structures that can lead to development of skills and potential of the workers. Or, will such work continue to create drones, with more technological advancement of the sector in the coming future?
Moreover, even in context to regulatory framework concerning such work, we can consider such employment relations to be non-standardized especially in case of those delivery segments operating as third-party logistics. As Kalleberg (2000) stressed on reciprocal relationship between the growth of non-standardized employment relationships and precarization of work, similarly, these online giants are increasingly turning to outsourcing of lower-end jobs to third party. Hence, a different set of power dynamics emerge with distinction between the legal employer (that is the delivery segment’s owner/manager) and the actual employer (the online companies). This kind of triangular employment relationships (Hudson, Kalleberg, & Reskin, 2000) works against the employees whereas they are protected neither by the companies (actual employer) nor by the outsourced department (legal employers). Hence, these boys might be working as employees for their specific departments but for the online companies they are just outsourced workers who do not assume direct responsibility for their employment. So, they can be considered to be excluded from the structure of the organization when it comes to building direct employment relationship but they are considered and counted during the companies’ boasting about their contribution towards employment generation in the economy. Moreover, in the absence of any regulatory framework, apart from service contracts maintained by the employment exchanges, these workers are seen to be working under insecure and unstable environment. Though few of the respondents claimed to be covered under the Employee Provident Fund and Employees State Insurance Act but this is not so for those paid under piece rate system. Hence, there is a need to standardize the employment relations or expand existing labour laws’ coverage over service sector through state’s intervention, so as to safeguard the interests of these workers.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
I convey my sincere thanks to Dr Debdulal Saha, Assistant Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati for his constant guidance and encouragement in completing this work.